Josh Imhof | features editor

Nestled between UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse and the Forbes Parking Garage, an unassuming parking lot is on track to be the location of Duquesne University’s newest building.

On Tuesday, the university announced plans for a new $68 million health sciences facility which is expected to open in Fall 2028. The proposed project will be an 80,000 square-foot building located along Forbes Avenue across from McGinley Hall and will serve as the new home of the John G. Rangos Sr. School of Health Sciences.

The building will be five stories tall and feature a plaza space in the front, according to a Pittsburgh Development Activities Meeting Report from Oct. 20.

Duquesne officially added the building to its 10-year Institutional Master Plan in an amendment on March 11. Originally, it was to be located directly next to McGinley Hall. However, university planners made the change after the residence building took up more space than originally anticipated.

The university said in a news release that one of the goals of the building was to consolidate existing health science programs into one location.

“There’s a real sense to try and pool schools and departments together as much as possible,” Duquesne University President Ken Gormley told The Duke.

The university said that the project will expand its community engagement and strengthen partnerships with local clinics and non-profits.

Facilities like the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, which is located in Fisher Hall, will be moved to the new building and now have street level access as well as parking spaces, according to David Dausey, provost and executive vice president of Duquesne.

Katherine Norton, director of clinical and international programs at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law, oversees the family law clinic on Fifth Avenue. She said the clinic’s location on a main road is an important aspect of its success.

“They see us. They know who we are,” Norton said.

Gormley said the new health sciences location will share those benefits.

“I would envision this similarly,” Gormley said. “It will be very easy for members of the community to access services students and faculty will be able to offer.”

Gormley also said that he envisions a “health corridor” along Forbes Avenue, which includes the recently opened Nasuti College of Osteopathic Medicine and UPMC Mercy’s Vision Institute.

The current health sciences building has undergone multiple uses. First serving as the university’s power plant, the site was repurposed as a gymnasium built in 1923, and then replaced by the Rangos school in 1990.

As the school has grown, Dausey said it has become necessary to make changes.

“Because it wasn’t purpose built for a school of health science, it’s really sort of outlived its life cycle there,” Dausey said. “We recognize the need to replace the site, replace the building with something that’s new and very purpose built and built specifically around these programs.”

New features will include a space simulating a home environment — complete with a kitchen and bedroom — for occupational and physical therapy majors to practice home visits. It will also include an upgraded maker space lab, which will allow professors and students to quickly switch from a learning setting to being able to get hands-on experience with relevant technologies.

Despite these upgrades, Dausey said there is no planned tuition increase for Rangos students beyond the annual increases that adjust for inflation.

Plans for the building were presented at a Pittsburgh Development Activities meeting on Oct. 20, where attendees and local organizations were able to ask questions about the upcoming project.

The project is now slated to be reviewed by the city planning commission, which will determine whether it complies with the Institutional Master Plan or if there are areas that need refinement.

In an email to The Duke, the planning commission said they are tentatively looking at January for review.

Josh Imhof can be reached at imhofj@duq.edu